


more than seven minutes.

by ivermectin



Category: Gossip Girl (TV 2007)
Genre: (sorry abt that! but soon), AU of s3 I guess, Alcohol, Angst, M/M, No Smut, POV Nate Archibald, Sad Dan Humphrey, Seven Minutes In Heaven Game, mostly Dan's Angst. he is Brooding, past Dan/Serena, past Nate/Blair (mentioned)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:08:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27299170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivermectin/pseuds/ivermectin
Summary: AU in which Dan & Nate go to the same college. While playing Seven Minutes in Heaven, they end up in a closet together.
Relationships: Nate Archibald/Dan Humphrey
Comments: 4
Kudos: 23





	more than seven minutes.

**Author's Note:**

> I just wanted to make Dan _brood_. I had to do it to him.

Nate spins the bottle evenly, and it goes round and round in circles before it finally lands on Dan. Some people are cheering, and someone wolf-whistles, even, but as a whole the mood is subdued. Dan gives him half a smile, somewhere between the awkward boy he’d been in high school and the prolific author he’s angling to be, all confidence _and_ awkwardness. He extends a hand to Nate.

“Shall we?”

Nate nods, getting up without taking Dan’s hand but putting an arm around him so that Dan knows that there are no hard feelings. Feeling grateful that they’re playing seven minutes in heaven, and not just spin the bottle, he walks into the closet, leading Dan in. Once they’re in there, and the doors have been closed, Nate turns on the dim torch on his phone, and places his phone on the floor so that the light doesn’t get in either one of their eyes, but illuminates the space in the closet.

Usually, out of all the men he knows, Dan would be his first choice to be in a situation like this. They’re forever friends in a way that he isn’t with anybody else, not even Chuck. Dan’s eyes sparkle when they look at him, and there’s so much sincere fondness between the two of them that he can’t help but feel that regardless of what happens, the two of them will always find their way back together.

Dan looks miserable, however, and this isn’t a usual situation. His clothes are crumpled, and the shadows under his eyes make him look like he hasn’t slept properly in weeks. Nate is concerned in a way he can’t put into words. He and Serena have had multiple discreet conversations about Dan, but all she’s been able to tell him is that he’s had a devastating break-up with someone, as well as a particularly bad friend break-up with Vanessa, and he’s been wallowing in gloom ever since.

It doesn’t matter what he tries, Dan is as unreachable as he would be if he were on the other side of the world. He’s distant and closed off and grieving something that Nate cannot understand.

They’re there in the closet now, for seven minutes, and there is no way out. The closet is too small for the two of them, and their sides are pressed up against each other. Dan shifts, lets his head rest on Nate’s shoulder, and Nate takes his hand.

The platonic intimacy of the moment probably gets Dan to open up in a way that none of Nate’s previous attempts have. Dan reaches out, over him, takes Nate’s phone and turns off the torch. In the dark, he burrows closer to Nate, and Nate lets his arms envelope Dan, holding him.

“Do you think I’m a bad person?” Dan asks, finally.

 _Is that where this is coming from?_ Nate thinks. He’s had to untangle this very hurdle with Blair before, smoothing her hair away from her face and kissing her cheek and telling her, _No, you’re not bad, Blair, you’re just playing a game by rules that people don’t always understand. You’re doing what you think is right._ But Dan isn’t Blair, so Nate settles for asking, “Where is this coming from?”

“Something Vanessa said,” Dan says. “About how I think I’m better than everyone else. And some insinuations, during some conversations, about how I am an inherently terrible boyfriend.”

“Uh,” Nate says, floundering. “I don’t think any of that makes you a bad person. It’s okay to feel like you’re better than other people, as long as you’re not a dick to them, you know? Sometimes that’s just how you feel. As for you being an inherently terrible boyfriend, I don’t know, but I’m sure Serena wouldn’t agree. You both were so deeply in love, back in school.”

“We’re not in school any longer,” Dan says, and he exhales shakily.

“Dan, maybe you have your flaws,” Nate says, soft. “It’s fine. It’s _human_. You’re not a bad person for them. Okay?”

“Hm,” Dan says. “I guess I just have to self-reflect, then.”

“Don’t we all?” Nate asks, and he can feel Dan’s smile against his shoulder.

“I sometimes worry,” Dan admits, after a few seconds, “that, you know, Serena was _it_ for me. That, post-Serena, I’m drained of everything good and redeeming, because _she_ brought it out, you know? Like, I am a kernel now. A shell. A, what-d’you-call-it.”

“That the best thing about you being a boyfriend was Serena?” Nate asks, smiling.

“I don’t think I can be that person with anyone else,” Dan says.

“Well, obviously. You can’t be Serena’s boyfriend with someone who isn’t Serena,” Nate points out.

“I don’t know if I like who I am without her,” Dan says.

“Where is this coming from?” Nate asks again.

“Vanessa said something, about how I’m inherently unlovable,” Dan says, and he hiccups, and _fuck,_ Nate should’ve realised earlier maybe, that Dan isn’t sober. But he hadn’t smelt drunk, and come to think of it, Dan’s been spending a _lot_ of time recently not being sober. Maybe Nate just didn’t see it because it wasn’t obvious, not the way things had been with Serena.

“Do you think I’m unlovable?” Dan asks, sadly, putting one of his hands on Nate’s cheek.

“No,” Nate says hollowly. “I don’t think you are. I think you’re plenty loveable.”

That’s when the timer goes off, seven minutes up, and the doors open. Nate and Dan get out of the closet, both of them disoriented, and Dan begins to make his way to the drinks table, when Nate loops an arm around him and turns him around, pulling him out of the door, to the garden.

They walk around in the garden in silence for a while. Dan is quietly accepting, not even asking why Nate has brought him here. After around five minutes though, the silence proves too much for Dan, and he says to Nate, quietly, “I thought you were going to kiss me. If we’d had more than those seven minutes.”

Nate leans forward, kisses Dan on the forehead. “I’d be happy to,” he says. “But you can only collect when you’re sober.”

Dan’s smiling a little, when Nate looks at him.

“Sorry about being such a downer,” he says eventually.

“Happens to the best of us,” Nate says calmly. “Ready to head in?”

Dan nods. They head back in, Nate's arm still around Dan.

**Author's Note:**

> [i have a gg tumblr sideblog - it's mostly dan/blair, but i wouldn't be me if i didn't yell about dan/nate, so, despite the url, i promise there is THAT, too. feel free to pop in & say hi!](https://dancommablair.tumblr.com/)


End file.
